Broadband Internet Access as "Basic Right" for Nigerians

The United Nations said that the progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the set of universally accepted anti-poverty measures to be reached by 2015, has been too slow.
Around the world countries are looking for ways to rejig the initiative but the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) think that broadband hold the key.
According to the UN’s agency, the truly transformational power of broadband networks can help get the MDGs back on track.
That captured the very essence of high-speed internet as key driver of social and economic development.
Toeing this line, some technologically advanced nations have begun to place priority on having a high speed internet connection at home and offices for their citizens.
In these parts of the world, life cannot go on without Internet access. They recognized that without internet that there will be no small business and meaning progress in unleashing individual creativity.
Even Finland went as far as making access to broadband every Finnish citizen's legal right and ensuring that every citizen will have access to a 1Mbps broadband connection.
Back home, some Nigerians have not seen the computer, talk less of access to internet. It is so bad that access to the internet is still considered a luxury only the rich can afford.
And when internet is available it is hardly reliable and expensive thereby shutting out researchers and students from joining the global information super highway.
The result is that Nigeria still lives in the dark age of information with crude medical care, obsolete learning materials and poor understanding of the rapidly developing information system.
Thankfully, the agitation to bring forward initiatives that would make broadband internet access a right of Nigerian citizens is getting louder and from familiar quarters.
For instance, stakeholders at the one-day Broadband for Nigeria (BB4NG) forum held in Abuja rose in unionism calling for urgent measure to address the paucity of broadband infrastructure to fire the kiln of development.
The campaign to make broadband ubiquitous at present is loosely organized.
It is important to anchor the agitation on four cardinal pillars “access, choice, openness, and innovation."
The campaign must make sure that broadband reach all people, in parts of the country
This is because, broadband is important because it delivers benefits right across every sector of society.